Fort Kochi and Mattancherry

When I left off last time we were on a train, surrounded by roaches and hurtling towards Ernakulam (the station nearest to Kochi). We got in at around midnight and it was pouring rain. Of course. But we managed to make it to our hotel by 12:30 and passed out.

The next day dawned bright and clear but we were still exhausted so we stumbled out, bleary-eyed to greet the new day. After getting ripped off by a rickshaw driver (50 rupees for a 10 minute ride!) we made it to the ferry to Fort Cochin. Fort Cochin is on an island connected to the mainland by a bridge. You can have a taxi take you across for 50-150 rupees, depending on the driver or you can just take the ferry for 5 rupees. We’re cheap so we took the ferry. It’s a really pretty ride across, the water is relatively clean and as you go across you can see people fishing.

When we arrived we decided to walk to our hotel. I still can’t decide if that was incredibly stupid or incredibly brilliant of us. Mainly because it’s really humid here and after about 10 or 15 minutes, you start to melt. But we walked and we melted and were instantly charmed by the place. Fort Cochin is a small place but very cute. You can see the Portuguese, Dutch, and British influence here in the winding streets and the colonial style houses. There’s also a bit of Chinese influence here. Along the water are Chinese fishing nets which are worked by a minimum of four people to maintain the balance. It’s really cool and just goes to show how much India has incorporated different influences into daily life.

We stayed at a place called Napier House which is a cute little homestay near the Dutch Cemetery. The people there were really friendly and gave us maps and directions and arranged tickets for a cultural show. One quick thing, so that you understand how ripped off we were on the mainland, here in Fort Cochin you can get a rickshaw driver for 3 hours for 50 rupees. Our hosts were really funny because we don’t speak Malayam and some of them don’t speak English so our conversations were with a lot of hand gestures. One woman in particular would come over to me in the mornings and chatter away in Malayam making lots of hand gestures while I chattered away in English doing the same. I think we looked like crazy people, but it was fun.

We went out exploring and found several churches. There’s the Saint Francis church that was erected by the Portuguese in the 1500s and later taken over by the Dutch and the British. Vasco da Gama was actually buried there before his remains were transferred to Lisbon to St. Jerome’s monastery (which I actually have a picture of on Flickr, I’ll find the link later). Then we continued walking past the Chinese fishing nets where we discovered this cool thing where the fishermen sell you a fish, then send you across the street to a place where they cook it for you how you want and voila! You have a fresh fish lunch! I will admit that I wasn’t brave enough to try it, but I heard that it’s actually really good.

We went to the Santa Cruz basilica which was built by the Portuguese and torn down by the Dutch then rebuilt in the 1800s. It’s a lovely church totally built in the gaudy Catholic style. There’s a very nice man who is the caretaker there who makes sure that everyone is being respectful and let’s you know that it’s okay to take pictures. He’s really funny. We were tiptoing around so as not to distract anyone from their prayers (and because a sign said SILENCE) when he comes up and says in a booming voice, “You can take pictures here! It’s OK! Here, come take a picture here!” Then he went apeshit on a group of French tourists and kicked them out because they actually went inside the confessional to “see how it worked”. It was amusing as well as slightly horrifying.

We made it to the museum at the Bishop’s house and it was more than slightly disappointing. It was a collection of religious relics which could have been interesting except that they were mostly from the 19th century and not very well preserved. They also had an explanation of religious life in Ernakulam and Kochi. It is kind of interesting to see the sheer number of churches here, but other than that the museum was pretty much a wash.

The next day we went out to Mattancherry and Jew Town. Yes, it’s called Jew Town. Mattancherry is also known as the Dutch Palace. It was a gift to the reigning raja during the Portuguese era in order to secure trading rights and the right to build a fort. It’s really big and again, slightly disappointing. Only a few rooms are open to visitors and of those much of the space is devoted to the history of the region, shown through plastic boards with writing on them. But it was interesting. Especially once they laid out the chronology of the rulers and you saw that most of them only lasted 3 years before “falling ill”.

We saw the synagogue in Jew Town which is said to be the oldest one in India. According to them, there are 70 Jewish people in Kochi and only 3000 in India. I’m not sure how much I buy their numbers, but it’s an interesting thought. Jew Town was very cute with more winding streets and lots of small town houses. But it was overrun with people trying to sell you stuff which kind of ruined the feel.

That night we went to a Kathakali show. Kathakali is a traditional performance and the show we went to was at the cultural center. What was nice about the way they did it was that they gave you an introduction to the art itself. When you arrived around 6 you got to see them putting on makeup. At 6:30 the show began with an explanation of the different facial expressions and hand movements. The makeup is exaggerated in an almost comical way so that the facial movements will be more apparent. And the facial movements are kind of intense. It takes years to be a master of them. I don’t remember the names from the story that night, but it involved three actors playing a prince, a demon who fell in love with the prince, and the demon disguised as a beautiful woman to make the prince fall in love with her. The performances were amazing. The actors don’t talk and instead rely on musicians and a singer to tell the story which makes it that much more interesting.

We discovered a little cafe called “Kashi art cafe” which has amazing drinks, lunches, and desserts. The chocolate cake is to die for. We went twice. We also found a cute place called Teapot which is a place for tea and lunch. Very cute and decorated with antique teapots. They also have cake. Good cake. Sugar high inducing cake.

And enough about cake. My thumbs are whimpering right now so our adventures in Karadipara and the epic bus ride will have to wait until next time.